Legendary director and screenwriter Garry Marshall will direct Mike Bencivenga's Hollywood comedy Billy & Ray Off-Broadway this fall, Marshall's first New York directing credit in over 20 years.
The play recounts the conflict between Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler over the making of Wilder's 1944 film Double Indemnity, illuminating the birth of film noir along the way. It begins previews at New York's Vineyard Theatre October 2 prior to an October 20 opening. Casting has not yet been announced.
Marshall, 79, is known for directing hit movies including The Flamingo Kid, Beaches, Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries and Valentine's Day, and as the creator of the hit TV sitcom Laverne & Shirley starring his sister Penny Marshall. During his long career he has produced or written for dozens of TV shows, including the earliest incarnation of The Tonight Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, The Odd Couple, Happy Days and Mork & Mindy.
Marshall's last New York theater directing credit was his own Wrong Turn at Lungfish in 1993 starring George C. Scott, Tony Danza and Jami Gertz. Last year he directed the world premiere of Billy & Ray at Burbank's Falcon Theatre, which he and his daughter Kathleen Marshall LaGambina founded back in 1997 to feed his self-proclaimed "life-long addiction to theatre."
In his review of the Falcon Theatre production, BackStage's Travis Michael Holder wrote that "Marshall directs with a steady, knowing hand…Still, the most fascinating aspect of Billy & Ray is Bencivenga's smart, knowing script, which captures an important era in filmmaking fueled by two great minds who rose above their shared belief that 'if there’s one thing Hollywood hates, it's originality.'"
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